How Important is Freedom of the Press?
Let’s ask Thomas Jefferson.
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble...
First Amendment, U.S. Constitution (1791)
How important was “freedom of the press” in the minds of the people who established it as a fundamental law of this land? And what exactly did they mean by “speech” and “the press”?
“I may err in my measures, but never shall deflect from the intention to fortify the public liberty by every possible means, and to put it out of the power of the few to riot on the labours of the many. no experiment can be more interesting than that we are now trying, & which we trust will end in establishing the fact that man may be governed by reason and truth. our first object should therefore be to leave open to him all the avenues to truth. the most effectual hitherto found is the freedom of the press. it is therefore the first shut up by those who fear the investigation of their actions.”
Thomas Jefferson, letter to John Tyler (1804)
What is more important than the hope that humanity, “…may be governed by reason and truth”? That outcome was hoped for when the founders protected speech and communications media from government regulation.
In the 21st century, we may look at the mainstream media and conclude that the experiment did not succeed. That the press has failed to be an “avenue of truth” and is instead a stream of disinformation and leftist political propaganda. But of course the mainstream media are only one part of print media. Thanks mostly to the founders — Jefferson and James Mason and the others who insisted that the Bill of Rights be added to the Constitution — we all have the right to write and publish our free “speech”.
But Jefferson does not call the press “the one avenue of truth”. By writing “avenues” he allows that other media may exist. In fact, he says that the press is the “most effectual hitherto found”. So he thought that others might come along in the future. And of course he was right. Radio and television broadcasting, the telephone system, the internet, and even movies all are systems of communication, inherently no different from other “avenues of truth” such as newspapers, books, magazines, and other print media. So are TV news programs and internet blogs.
The U.S. government regulators say that they have the legal right to regulate television and radio and, now, the internet. But why? There is no FCC for newspapers and books. Because those are protected from such regulation. Why is printed paper protected from government regulators, and the other communications systems are heaped with an ever-growing deluge of government control?
Your speech on the internet or on broadcast media is indeed protected. But according to Jefferson and the Constitution as it was intended to mean, both speech and the communication media are protected from government regulation. And indeed print has thrived, has evolved and improved over the centuries, without any control of government regulators.
Every succeeding news communications system — telegraph, movies, radio, telephones, television — has become more heavily regulated than the previous one. Now we are seeing government moving to control the internet in numerous ways. The FCC has moved to control it the way that it controls public utilities. Government regulators should control the internet and all communications systems the way that they control the printing press: Not at all.
Our systems of communication rightfully belong to us, not to the government regulators. Leave open all our avenues of truth and leave them open to all Americans. Freedom of the press means freedom for us and for our systems of communication. It is our right.
Of course, not every revolutionary ever agreed with Jefferson about freedom of the press.
“Why should freedom of speech and freedom of the press be allowed? Why should a government which is doing what it believes is right allow itself to be criticized? It would not allow opposition by lethal weapons. Ideas are much more fatal things than guns.”
George Riddell quoting a speech by Vladimir Lenin in Moscow, in 1920.
When I first found the words "...rightful liberty is unobstructed action according to our will, within the limits drawn around us by the equal rights of others." from Thomas Jefferson I put a copy of these words in the little tray at the front of the center drawer of my old metal desk. That I may see these words whenever I AM at my desk.